“The whole dissident idea attracts a lot of crazies. And then all of a sudden, without realizing it, you've become one of them." Peter Duesberg, 2009

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Monday, February 7, 2011

OnlineUniversitiesPeter Duesberg. This professor was much admired and respected at his University of California-Berkeley campus, and has completed some incredibly respectable work. But a recent article inDiscovermagazine brought to light some of Duesberg’s more controversial, perhaps even unsavory, beliefs to light. Since 1986, Duesberg has been an adamant AIDS denier, believing that the illness is caused by drug use rather than by the HIV virus. Despite a lack of evidence backing up his claims, as well as some concerns about ethics in regard to his published articles, Duesberg’s views have affected international AIDS policy, especially in South Africa. It is thought that the government’s refusal to provide anti-viral medications to AIDS patients, believing with Duesberg that their condition was not caused by a virus, led to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.

17 comments:

Non.That was theory in 1982. Duesberg ignores 30 years of solid research.Drugs are not good for you...they can suppress the immune system. But comparing what happens to the immune system from drugs and what happens from HIV infection is like comparing a ripple in a pond to a tsunami.

Seth, you can't even count you putz, he didn't publish his rebuttal of HIV/AIDS until 1986.

A rebuttal that was never answered by the way.

And just how does your doctorate in pseudoscience qualify you to comment against his in microbiology? Doesn't matter though does it, your NIH grant to run this blog allows you to behave any way you want.

corrupt is as corrupt does.

Still, you provide the laughs constantly, the latest being when I checked on your published papers and who cites them.......you do! 3 from 3 on the latest one.

That's just how you manufacture a consensus and verify your own findings. Interesting research though, random phone calls for pill compliance. Glaxo and Pfizer must want to know who actually is taking their poisons on time.

Clarkie Baker is a self-described Steven Seagal ninja who calls himself a "writer, producer, journalist, grew up on the streets of Calcutta and Rio, etc."

In reality, Clarkie grew up in LA, couldn't get into college so ended up working as a security guard in a few places, joined the police and worked as a traffic cop until he got fired. Then his wife and children left him when they couldn't stand his defective personality anymore.

Then he had a psychotic break and began blaming all his failures on "liberals" and created conspiracy theories. He trolls blogs and posts his racist rants and conspiracy theories on HIV, Global Warming, etc. He also has been known to lie about his involvement in various things and ignores people when they point out his failures. He then claimed he was a California State Representative (not true) in a letter to TheStreet.com to which the editor requested that he not contact them anymore as he is "bat shit crazy". All in all, Clarkie is a mess of a man with a mental mess that he can't deal with. It would actually be sad, if it weren't so pathetically funny.

"Despite a lack of evidence backing up his claims..."Maybe you're right, even though Dr. Duesberg gave a number of statistical evidences in this document: http://www.duesberg.com/papers/chemical-bases.html, published by a peer-reviewed journal.

Moreover,, it isn't correct to say that according to him, AIDS illness "...is caused by drug use", since he stated that it is due to malnutrition too, with special reference to African AIDS.

Maybe that's why South Africa Government refused "...to provide anti-viral medications to AIDS patients..."; however, I don't know of any statistical research stating that this "...led to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths."So, here we have "...a lack of evidence backing up YOUR claims".Bye.

I habe been diagnosed POS in 1996. Have not considered taking drugs as studies all based in Surrogate markers (e.g. Viral Load) etc. Only solid endpoints like overall survival are convincing for me. Had a great adverse drug effect Free Life since then. 4 years ago i suffered from dlbcl, a AIDS defining disease, and medics only wanted to treat me with proper chemotherapy after having started with HAART regimen. I successfully refused with support of my lawyer and managed to receive full chemotherapy regimen without the need for dose adjustments and had not any major side effects. Still alive and well even though highest stage lymphoma and still not on antiretrovirals.

One day the truth will be in the light thanks to people like Peter Duesberg...he's saving life !Notice that the spherical shape of the earth has been accepted by everybody very lately, but during centuries people were thinking that the earth was flat....it's about the same for AIDS.

Arthur Schopenhauer : " All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Peter Duesberg asserted his theory that drug abuseor exposure caused the almost 10,000 deaths that occured before AZT was approved for AIDS in March 1987.After AZT was used for a while he could blame AZTbecause he knew it was an evil drug; one study I justread from 1998 found that AZT targets cardiac mtDNA.All Duesberg offered for the 10,000 pre-AZT seemed to be based on Newspaper reports of individual accounts of extraordinary amount of popper use. Poppers did have a history as a prescribed medication. And of extraordinary drug use suggesting IV drugs. The popular drugs of the 1970'swere marijuana and alcohol, and lingering use of 60's LSD. This was true forfor many straight and gay young people in S.F.at that time and perhaps now.Duesberg's assertion, as I recall, was that the people who got sick and died were the heavy, or excessive element of drug takers in the gay community. He did not say they all used poppers, I expect.There is no presentation of proof that all or even a major part of the 10,000 deaths fit Duesberg'stheory. If there is such documentation, I would like to see it.Duesberg did not just deny HIV he denied that there was any causative communicable organism. That was a hefty stretch and not reasonable without discarding his logical fallacies rhetorick and proved with the first 10,000 deaths that his theory was true.I think Duesberg rushed out on that limb to divert attention from the highly qualified Dr. Strecher who discovered the genetic makeup of the putative HIV was a combo of two animal viruses and could not possibly be a natural occuring virus. His attorney brother worked with him and obtained some significant documents from the government before he was murdered and Dr. Strecker stepped away from the limelight as Duesberg loudly rushed in.Christine Maggiore appears to have died from AIDS. She was misled into believing there was no infectious agent whether or not it was HIV.If I may add,Just yesterday I read about a TAT gene assoc with HIV and found it is something shared with the visna virus which has been suggested to be, in a lab modified form, the co-factor with M.fermentans incognitus for the illness, and deaths associated with AIDS.

I used to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he is beyond irrationality rooted in mean spirited incredulity. He is completely ignorant with regard to HIV which is a shame because his earlier work was very respectable. It is time for him to shut up and go away. He has become a very dangerous voice if he is not relegated to irrelevance.

This condition known as HIV-AIDS is caused by the solvent used in the processing of illicit drugs such as cocaine and poppers. Duesberg will be proven right. This is not a virus. There is a reason why you people will not keep this Posted comment up, because when people start to investigate the issue of solvents and the connection to cocaine they will find that it is not merely coincidental but has some relevance to the fact that these solvents is doing something to the human body that is not normal. This blog should not be here just to criticize Duesberg for his opinions but to find relevancy to anything that might be a solution to this problem of HIV-AIDS.

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AIDS Denialism on Law & Order

If you missed the Law & Order episode 'Retro' on AIDS denialism you will want to see the 2-minute Replay. This episode portrays a woman who denies she has HIV in which she and her infant daughter both die of AIDS. Sound familiar? Click the pic to watch.

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In Denying AIDS, Seth Kalichman provides a fascinating look into the thinking of those who propagate AIDS myths and the negative impact they have on our response to a deadly disease. He shows us how AIDS pseudoscience confuses the public and threatens sound public health policy. Anyone who cares about the global HIV/AIDS pandemic should read this book. Helene D. Gayle, Chair of the 2009 US Presidential Council on AIDS, CEO CARE USA, former Assistant Surgeon GeneralSeth Kalichman brilliantly uses a psychological lens to expose the wacky world that creates and maintains its presence despite the untold numbers of deaths and suffering it has caused. This book is a wake up call to policy makers and scientists, particularly in places most affected by the pandemic, that denialism must be confronted if we want to bring it under control. A must read for those who want to know more about the power and influence of pseudoscience.Michael Merson, Director, Global Health Institute at Duke University and Former Director of the World Health Organization's Global Program on AIDS.

This excellent book examines the detailed history of HIV/AIDS denialism as well as its damaging impact throughout the world. HIV/AIDS denialism and its proponents have created confusion when the clear provision of scientifically accurate communication was most needed.James Curran, Dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, Former Director of the CDC HIV/AIDS Division.

Seth Kalichman has superbly captured the contradictions inherent in AIDS denialism. He has deftly uncovered its religious-like fervor, its vociferous proponents and passionate opponents as well as its destructive force when legitimized by the South African President.Salim S. Abdool Karim, Member of the 2000 South African Presidential Panelon AIDS, Professor at University of KwaZulu-Natal, and Director of Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA)

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